


When the Music's Over

by PyrrhaIphis



Category: Velvet Goldmine
Genre: Aliens, Gen, Glam Rock, No Dialogue, UFO - Freeform, WTF, flying saucer, telepathy?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-18
Updated: 2016-12-18
Packaged: 2018-09-09 13:24:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,024
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8892394
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PyrrhaIphis/pseuds/PyrrhaIphis
Summary: Despite how many of them he attended, Jack Fairy was never one to enjoy parties.  That was why he was leaving early after the Death of Glitter concert was over.  An unexpected surprise awaited him outside...(An odd, brief little fic written in the last days of NaNo, after I finished my main fic.  Oh, and despite the "No Dialogue" tag, there is a single word of spoken dialogue.  But it's quoted from the movie, so it's a little different.)





	

            The room was filled with people drinking, dancing, smoking and otherwise enjoying the official final night of glam rock.  But Jack Fairy did not feel like joining in the party.  He rarely did.  Parties…parties were for other sorts of people.  They wanted him to show up, and so he did, but he found no entertainment in being there.

            Entertainment was, in fact, rather an alien concept to Jack Fairy.  Something he could recognise for others, but fail to find for himself.  The closest he came was the feeling of taking part in a show, seeing the other singers perform, watching the audience react, and watching them react to the audience.

            Curt Wild was the ideal for that.  He became entranced by his own performance, and his fans joined in the spell, casting it back at him even as he continued casting over them.  Singer and audience alike went to a realm distinct from mundane reality, forbidden to all but the privileged few.

            That was why Jack had wanted to work with Curt, but he had failed to feel the same thing the audience did.  He liked to see them caught up in Curt’s emotions, and he liked to see Curt enslaved by their desires, but it was always distant.  It never involved him.  He was as impassive an observer as he might have been if he had been watching it on a television, or a movie screen.

            This particular party felt even less engaging than most.  Jack left early, slipping out the back door into the empty alley beyond.  It was strangely deserted.  Normally, there would be couples kissing or fornicating, and people chatting as they shared cigarettes or joints.  There wasn’t a soul to be seen.  Not even an alley cat scavenging garbage.

            The quiet was so disorienting that Jack paused just outside the door, lingering as if fearful that something might happen to him.  But it was the same alley by which he had entered.  If it was not dangerous then, it could not be dangerous now, yes?

            Jack stepped out into the alley, and began to make his way towards the main street.  Halfway down the alley, he became aware of a light from above.  Looking up, he saw a circular disc with a flowerburst of light at the centre and rays of lights extending from it.

            He should probably have been afraid.  Or at least concerned.  But he felt strangely at peace.  The flying object seemed entirely benevolent.  It radiated a warm, friendly aura.  Shutting his eyes, Jack held out both hands above his head, stretching them towards the thing in the sky.  As he began to spread his hands, he felt a warm, tingling sensation flood through his body.

            When he opened his eyes again, Jack found himself in a strange place.  The walls were all gleaming metal, buffed and polished with glitter.  The room was circular, and a ring of control panels not unlike recording equipment surrounded the centre where Jack was standing.  Below his feet was a flowerburst-shaped window that showed him the alley where he had just been a moment earlier.

            Scattered about the room at various places along the ring of control panels were a half dozen people of unearthly beauty.  Not one of them seemed to be a man, nor did any seem to be women.  They were as he often felt he was supposed to be:  neither male nor female, but something different, perhaps better.

            Filled with a peace that should have been impossible in his situation, Jack asked them where he was.  They only looked at him in response, but somehow that was all it took for him to understand the answer.

            More than a hundred years ago, they had visited this planet before, and left behind a special device, a bauble that could weigh its bearers and send back reports.  It had passed from poet to poet and singer to singer.  But it was time for them to return to their home planet, and they wanted to take back a single sample from among those their device had chosen.

            Of everyone they could have chosen, they felt Jack Fairy was the one most fitting.  The one most like themselves.

            His telepathic hosts—if telepathy was even the right word for it—wanted to take him back to their world and fête him forevermore.  He had no more purpose on Earth, so why would he want to refuse?

            But he felt badly about the idea of leaving without saying farewell.  At least to Curt, since they were supposed to go on tour together in a few weeks.  It would be rude to leave without letting him know what had happened.

            When Jack told them that, his hosts flew their ship up above the club.  Through the window below his feet, Jack could see Curt standing on the roof of the building, kissing an unfamiliar fellow.  They were too far away for Jack to make out many details.  Nor did Curt or his new friend seem aware of them.  As Curt moved around behind the other fellow and began helping him out of his trousers, Jack asked if the ship could move any closer.

            By the time they got closer, Curt was just standing there behind the young man, one arm around the youth’s chest and shoulders.  The young man’s eyes were closed in bliss.

            “Hey.”

            At the sound of Curt’s voice, the young man opened his eyes.  Both of them seemed quite unsurprised to see the flying saucer coming towards them.  Just as Jack had been.  It had that kind of an aura.

            At Jack’s request, his hosts pressed a button to send a message to the two men on the rooftop below.  A rain of silver glitter began to cascade down upon them.  The unfamiliar youth shut his eyes as he aimed his face up at the rain, but Curt kept watching until the rooftop suddenly shrank away as the ship began to leave the Earth behind.

            Jack was positive they had gotten his message.

            Now he was beginning a grand adventure.  Perhaps he would finally find entertainment for himself.


End file.
